The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Thomas Colley of Forming the Void (Lafayette, Louisiana)
—
How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
We’re pretty much in a holding pattern at the moment. I’m recovering from a broken arm that happened right when the virus started to hit pretty hard so we haven’t been able to do any live streaming like others are doing, or even get together as a band and jam. Our plans have been totally turned on their head, like everyone else’s. We were supposed to leave next week for our first European tour. Health-wise, we’re all good, other than the aforementioned broken arm.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
Where we’re at in South Louisiana all non-essential businesses are closed. Schools are out for the rest of the school year. Lots of areas have curfews. And essential businesses like grocery stores and hardware stores are limiting the number of customers in the store at one time. Basically just trying to keep large groups of people from being in one place at one time.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
The biggest thing I’ve noticed, both around me and in the music business, is the loss of jobs. Where we live the oilfield industry is huge and it’s been hit really hard. And also lots of friends who made their living from music have had their lives upended.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
We can’t wait to get back out on the road and play some shows. But, until then, we have a new album coming out on May 8 and hopefully once I’m healed up enough we might do a bit of live streaming. *fingers crossed* Also, stay strong. We’ll get through this. It may take a while, but we’ll make it.
Plenty of familiar stuff here if you’ve been hanging around the site lately, but there’s some stuff I haven’t written about yet too. The theme, such as it was — and man, themes are loose with this show anyway, but this one felt even more so — was just good stuff that happened in April. Today’s May 1, and it feels like last month was just lost on so many levels, that I wanted to highlight a few of the good things that happened despite the chaos and the dire feelings that defined so much of the time.
My point is the same as ever: Music still sounds good. If you’ve got that, you’ve got something to hold onto. If there’s nothing else, there’s music. That’s all I’m ever really saying. Sorry to spoil it. Now you don’t have to look at The Obelisk anymore. You’re all done.
You should still listen to the show though because I recorded the voice tracks for it on my phone while I was going to buy fresh mozzarella, and considering New Jersey’s got over 100,000 cases of COVID-19, the sheer Jersey-ness of the endeavor really I think shines through. Plus in the second break, if you stick it out, I say the word “awesome” like 50 times and sound like a total doofus, and that’s worth hearing. I overuse “awesome” anyway, but really, it sounds silly here. I listened back and heard it and decided to leave it in. Hell, at least it’s real.
Thanks for listening if you do.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.01.20
Elder
Halcyon
Omens*
Elephant Tree
Exit the Soul
Habits*
Forming the Void
Ancient Satellite
Reverie*
BREAK
Foghound
Turn Off the World
Turn Off the World*
Lord Fowl
The Wraith
Glorious Babylon*
Soldati
Solar Tse
Doom Nacional*
Trippy Wicked
Green Memories
Three Leaves / Green Memories*
Satyrus
Black Satyrus
Rites*
Marrowfields
Dragged to the World Below
Metamorphoses*
Pale Divine
Tyrants / Pawns (Easy Prey)
Consequence of Time*
Paradise Lost
Fall From Grace
Obsidian*
Katatonia
Behind the Blood
City Burials*
Itus
Primordial
Primordial*
BREAK
River Cult
Chilling Effect
Chilling Effect*
Astral Bodies
Mythic Phantoms
Escape Death*
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 15 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
[Click play above to stream the premiere of ‘Ancient Satellite’ from Forming the Void’s Reverie. Album is out May 22 on Ripple Music.]
While Lafayette, Louisiana, four-piece Forming the Void have shown increasing progressive tendencies to this point in their relatively-prolific tenure, it’s not a stretch to think that with their fourth album, Reverie, they reach something of a put-up-or-shut-up moment. Over the last half-decade, they’ve served in the role of upstarts in an emergent sphere of progressive heavy rock, with their three also-single-word-title full-lengths — 2016’s Skyward (review here), 2017’s Relic (review here) and 2018’s Rift (review here) — successively bringing more complex use of melody and structure, increased tonal presence, and a deceptive rhythmic patience that, when the band decides to roll, makes that groove utterly consuming. They toured a fair share to support Rift and signed to Ripple Music ahead of Reverie, with guitarist/vocalist James Marshall, guitarist Shadi Omar Al-Khansa and drummer Thomas Colley (who came aboard for Rift) welcoming in the meantime new bassist Thorn Letulle to the fold.
Low end is not a minor consideration in Forming the Void‘s sound, so the shift feels all the more noteworthy, but as the now-fully-revamped rhythm section settles in behind Al-Khansa and Marshall‘s guitars, Forming the Void meet that significant moment for the band head on. Removed from the quick succession of their first three records — each of which felt like a step en route to the next — it was time for them to make a declaration of who they are in terms of aesthetic and the substance of their craft, and to showcase the lessons they’ve learned not only on tour and through restructuring the lineup, but as songwriters with an increasing amount of experience in the studio. Reverie, then, is the put-up in put-up-or-shut-up, and if it indeed is to be that declaration, they could hardly have titled it more appropriately than to make it a wake-up call. Comprised of seven songs running an ultra-manageable 36 minutes, it is a work of striking dimensionality and purpose that pays off the band’s potential while also seeing them set up avenues for future growth in terms of melody and arrangement.
Most crucially, their growth has not come at the expense of their songwriting. Just the opposite. Songs like album-opener “Sage,” “Trace the Omen,” the oud-inclusive “Manifest,” the faster push of “Electric Hive” and the largesse-shove of the penultimate “Ancient Satellite” — with its uptick the melody in the chorus and corresponding shimmer in the guitar — are the most resonant the band has conjured to-date, taking the lessons of a song like “On We Sail” from Rift and expanding the form to suit multiple moods and tempos throughout Reverie. All seven tracks hover on either side of the five-minute mark, and though none of the final three — “Electric Hive,” “Ancient Satellite” and closer “The Ending Cometh” — actually pass five minutes long, Forming the Void never sound rushed. “The Ending Cometh” is perhaps the most patient of the inclusions on Reverie, with Al-Khansa‘s lead stretching over a drawl of a rhythm that feels almost like it’s running in slow motion in all the right ways.
Among the strengths the songs ultimately reinforce is to prove once more what a massive difference the right drummer can mean to a band. Not the most technical drummer. Not just a boogie or a swing drummer. But the right drummer in the right songs. What Colley brings to Reverie, from kicking off “Sage” to providing the ground beneath the floating midsection of “Trace the Omen” to punctuating the utterly massive, righteous stomp of “Ancient Satellite” and holding that last momentum over to the finale, is not to be understated. His work is not by any means the only point of evolution on the part of the band — Marshall‘s confidence as a frontman has lead to an increased melodic reach and his stepping away from the direct rhythm of the riffs in his lyrical patterning, and Al-Khansa‘s lead work has yet to seem so fluid either in tone or soulful expression, while Letulle leaves no shortage of impression in the resounding thickness of the material — but it is a particular thrill to behold. He does not overplay, or underplay. Quite simply, he nails it, and Forming the Void as a whole is stronger for that.
From the depth of the lowest bass frequency to each pop of the snare and the winding ringout of guitar in the mellow beginning of second cut “Onward Through the Haze,” Forming the Void show themselves to be masters of their approach, and whether it’s the volume trades between verses and choruses, or the atmospheric reach of “Manifest” as the centerpiece, their control does not waver. At the same time, it’s worth highlighting once again that while Reverie is this point of arrival for Forming the Void in terms of their sound — it is the landmark toward which they’ve been building all along — its impact is so powerful because of the songwriting at work across its span. Their songs are not “part-showcases” — they’re songs. And for all the progressive nuances on display throughout and for all the intent that comes through so clearly in establishing a sense of mood and ambience, the fact that it’s songs doing that work still gives Reverie an unpretentious feel.
Forming the Void have grown as a unit on every level — in purpose, craft and performance — and Reverie stands as testament to their accomplishment to this point. It simply puts them in a different class of band. They’re not the upstarts anymore, and they’re not quite “veterans” yet — this Spring would’ve been their first touring in Europe, but of course those plans were scuttled like everyone’s plans for everything in Spring 2020 — but the work they’re doing right now is essential to the forward progression not only of themselves, but to American heavy rock as a whole. I mean it. There have been many who’ve loudly sung Forming the Void‘s praises over the last five years or so, and Reverie demonstrates just how right they were to do so. One of the year’s best albums, no question, and a rare moment of creative realization captured and preserved.
The theme for this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio is pretty straightforward if you listen. It’s comfort songs. You would not necessarily believe that of a playlist that opens with Total Fucking Destruction doing the title-track of an album called To Be Alive at the End of the World, but again, once you listen, it’s actually kind of soothing. There’s a fair amount of instrumental material included, led off by Yawning Man, and I think the part with Vinnum Sabbathi and Forming the Void is probably as heavy as it gets, though that new Elephant Tree track certainly has some roll to it. God damn that’s a good song, not that that’s a huge surprise from those guys.
I haven’t cut the voice breaks for it yet but will do so sometime before this is posted, but I intend to talk a bit about the Om song and my association with their early work and seeing them at SXSW for what I think might’ve been the first time. It was a while ago and it’s hard to remember for a few reasons, but anyway, if I can remember it between typing this and speaking that, I hope to speak to it a bit, because I know that’s not their most soothing stuff by a long shot, but the memory I have of it puts it in that framework for me. Closing with YOB’s “Marrow” was, of course, a given.
Thanks for listening if you do. I hope you enjoy, and if you see this and don’t listen, then thanks for reading. If you’re not reading, well, you’ll never know you were being thanked.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 04.03.20
Total Fucking Destruction
To be Alive at the End of the World
To be Alive at the End of the World*
Yawning Man
I Make Weird Choices
Macedonian Lines
Acid King
Center of Everywhere
Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere
Colour Haze
Peace, Brothers and Sisters!
Colour Haze
BREAK
Pretty Lightning
Boogie at the Shrine
Jangle Bowls*
Elephant Tree
Bird
Habits*
Charivari
Lotus Eater
Descent*
Tia Carrera
Layback
Tried and True*
Vinnum Sabbathi
Quantum Determinism
Of Dimensions & Theories*
Forming the Void
Manifest
Reverie*
BREAK
Om
Annapurna
Variations on a Theme
YOB
Marrow
Clearing the Path to Ascend
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 17 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 18th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Louisiana-based heavy progressive rockers Forming the Void have announced the details of their forthcoming album on Ripple Music, titled Reverie. Metal Insider had the track premiere of the first single to the follow-up to 2018’s Rift (review here), and you can see the cover art — gorgeous — below, courtesy of the PR wire. The four-piece are currently wrapping up a tour with Church of Misery and they’ll head to Europe for the first time to hit the road with Spaceslug on a run that coincides with Reverie‘s release.
Easily one of the year’s most anticipated records. I have high expectations and no reason to think they won’t be met on every level. Certainly the new song streaming doesn’t hurt my argument.
From the PR wire:
Progressive doom voyagers FORMING THE VOID premiere new single; new album ‘Reverie’ due out May 8th on Ripple Music!
Louisiana-based astral doom purveyors FORMING THE VOID are ready to release their fourth album ‘Reverie’ this May 8th on Ripple Music! Enter another sonic dimension with first single “Trace The Omen.”
FORMING THE VOID’s new single “Trace The Omen” is a divine ode to modern psychedelia, weaving its way through your subconscious with its alluring and highly resonating Eastern-infused melodies, and a slow, fuzzed-out buildup. If you weren’t familiar with FTV’s progressive and above all expansive brand of heavy, then this is an official invitation.
“Trace the Omen was an esoteric one to write and record. With the atmospheric songs we go deep into exploring sounds, layers and dynamics to create a mystical vibe and cosmic energy flow. Hope everyone enjoys it!” the band comments. With fourth full-length ‘Reverie’, FORMING THE VOID seeks to further explore aspects of the sound they’ve shaped on their previous outings, guided by a desire to strike a balance between organic and intentional. The result is an album that reaches new levels of refined depth, mystical energy and cosmic transcendence.
‘Reverie’ is out on May 8th through Ripple Music on coloured and black vinyl, CD and digital. You can preorder it right now from North America and Europe/rest of the world.
FORMING THE VOID ‘Reverie’ Out May 8th on Ripple Music
TRACK LISTING: 1. Sage 2. Onward Through The Haze 3. Trace The Omen 4. Manifest 5. Electric Hive 6. Ancient Satellite 7. The Ending Cometh
Forming the Void w/ Spaceslug: 30.04 Wroclaw PL TBC 01.05 Dresden DE Groovestation 02.05 Nijmegen NL Sonic Whip Festival 03.05 Copenhagen NL Stengade 05.05 Berlin DE Toast Hawaii 06.05 Cologne DE MTC 08.05 Coventry UK Arches 09.05 Edinburgh UK Red Crust Fest 10.05 Edinburgh UK Red Crust Fest 11.05 London UK The Black Heart 12.05 Bristol UK The Lanes
Forming the Void w/ Church of Misery & Black Wizard: 2/18 Toronto ON @ Hard Luck 2/19 Chicago IL @ Reggie’s 2/20 Minneapolis MN @ Skyway Theatre 2/21 Milwaukee WI @ Cactus Club
Forming The Void: James Marshall – Guitar/Vocals Shadi Omar Al-Khansa – Guitar Thorn Letulle – Bass Thomas Colley – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
There are more dates to be announced, but what a show this would be to catch. Louisiana’s Forming the Void and Poland’s Spaceslug are exceedingly well paired for what they bring in terms of blending melodic breadth and sheer tonal heft, and with some of Forming the Void‘s more progressive elements and Spaceslug‘s forays into more extreme styles of metal as heard on their recent offerings, there are still plenty of elements at play to distinguish each on their own while complementing the other. Kudos to whoever put that one together — the shows are presented by Blackskull Services, so they’d be a good bet — but yeah, that’s going to work really well on stage. I know Forming the Void have been working on a new record, and Spaceslug seem to be perpetually doing the same, but if they had some songs leftover for a split, that’d be a win.
Before Forming the Void hit Euro soil for the first time, they’ll be on tour starting this weekend in the US with Church of Misery and Black Wizard, meeting up with Truckfighters and Valley of the Sun and Wizard Rifle along the way, which is, in the parlance of probably five years ago, epic. Those dates are here as well as a refresher.
I do not think this will be the last time Forming the Void go to Europe, but it only happens first once.
Behold:
Forming the Void- – European Tour with Spaceslug
This May universes collide. Forming The Void and Spaceslug will travel Europe spreading sounds of cosmic void. Prepare to be taken on a journey beyond the sky, driven by wall of noise and dreamy soundscapes. Join this ship across the galaxies.
Forming the Void w/ Spaceslug: 30.04 Wroclaw PL TBC 01.05 Dresden DE Groovestation 02.05 Nijmegen NL Sonic Whip Festival 03.05 Copenhagen NL Stengade 05.05 Berlin DE Toast Hawaii 06.05 Cologne DE MTC 08.05 Coventry UK Arches 09.05 Edinburgh UK Red Crust Fest 10.05 Edinburgh UK Red Crust Fest 11.05 London UK The Black Heart
Forming the Void w/ Church of Misery & Black Wizard: 2/9 Austin TX @ Barracuda 2/11 Wilmington NC @ Reggie’s 2/12 Washington DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel 2/13 Philadelphia PA @ Underground Arts 2/14 Brooklyn NY @ Gold Sounds 2/15 Brooklyn NY @ Kingsland 2/16 Boston MA @ Middle East 2/17 Montreal QC @ Bar LeRitz 2/18 Toronto ON @ Hard Luck 2/19 Chicago IL @ Reggie’s 2/20 Minneapolis MN @ Skyway Theatre 2/21 Milwaukee WI @ Cactus Club
Forming The Void: James Marshall – Guitar/Vocals Shadi Omar Al-Khansa – Guitar Thorn Letulle – Bass Thomas Colley – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Next May will mark the third edition of the Sonic Whip Festival, though I’ll admit this is the first I’m hearing of it. No surprise there, as I’m about two years behind on most things in life. Tickets for Sonic Whip 2020 are set to go on sale tomorrow at noon CET for the night-and-dayer, with a pre-party May 1 and a full event on May 2 at Doornroosje in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and the lineup will feature a few of the acts making the rounds at that time, including headliners Masters of Reality and Kadavar, as well as Pissed Jeans, Rotor, Forming the Void, The Cosmic Dead, Gum Takes Tooth and Bonnacons of Doom.
I’ll admit it was Forming the Void that caught my eye and not just because I happen to be wearing their t-shirt today. This is the second event around that time that the Louisiana-based progressive heavy rockers have been announced for, and while I was already just waiting for them to announce a European tour after the first one, this only further confirms that update is coming.
Likewise keeping an eye out for Masters of Reality‘s full run to be unveiled, as they’re set to do Desertfest and others in addition to this one. And, well Kadavar are just kind of always on the road somewhere, so yeah, they’ll probably be touring too.
But I’m getting off-track, so here’s the announcement from the fest:
Sonic Whip 2020
Sonic Whip, the multi-headed rock monster that combines roaring guitars riffs with steaming bass lines, pounding drums and other sonic, psychedelic excesses, is preparing for the third edition. We kick off on May 1 with a pre-party deluxe in Doornroosje to go completely berserk on May 2 at the same location.
LINE-UP ? MASTERS OF REALITY ? KADAVAR ? PISSED JEANS ? ROTOR ? THE COSMIC DEAD ? FORMING THE VOID ? GUM TAKES TOOTH ? BONNACONS OF DOOM ? MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED…
Ticket sales start on Friday 22 November at 12.00 with the combi tickets. The first batch of very limited combi costs € 57.50, then € 67.50. Day tickets go on sale later, more info will follow.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 18th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
This very evening marks the beginning of Forming the Void‘s West Coast-bound latest round of tour dates. Joining them in the endeavor are Witch Ripper, from Seattle, and of particular note is the appearance this weekend at Heavy Mash in Arlington, which is co-presented by this site and for which I can only recommend attendance. Make a day of it. Make two days of it. Do whatever you want. Follow the bands on tour. But you know, tell them you’re doing that. Don’t just randomly show up and lurk at each gig. I think at that point you could probably say hi and it’d be cool.
Forming the Void were originally slated and I think I mentioned around here at some point — yup, sure did — that they had studio time booked to record their next album. Well, plans change. They’ll reportedly knuckle down after this run and get to work on the thing, but in the meantime will take part in Magnetic Eye Records‘ tribute to Alice in Chains, the Dirt [Redux], as part of a busy slate next year that will also see them play their first show on the other side of the Atlantic, appearing at Edinburgh’s Red Crust Festival in May (info here). Should make a day of that too, maybe. Or three.
Current tour dates follow. Go see this band:
Forming the Void & Witch Ripper – Void Ripper Tour Dates
We’re heading out west with Witch Ripper! Let’s hang!
10/18 Baton Rouge, LA – Phil Brady’s 10/19 Arlington, TX – Heavy Mash at Division Brewing 10/20 Wichita, KS – Elbow Room 10/21 Denver, CO – Tooey’s 10/22 Salt Lake City, UT – Greek Station 10/23 Boise, ID – The Olympic Venue 10/24 Spokane, WA – Red Room * 10/25 Seattle, WA – Funhouse * 10/26 Olympia, WA – Le Voyeur * 10/27 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge * 10/29 Santa Cruz, CA – Blue Lagoon * 10/30 Los Angeles, CA – Redwood * 10/31 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar* 11/1 El Paso, TX – RCBG @ Thunderbird 11/1 Berkeley, CA – The Five and Dime + 11/2 San Antonio, TX – Faust 11/2 Eureka, CA – Sirens’s Song Tavern + 11/3 Portland, OR Twilight +
*w/ Witch Ripper + No Forming the Void
Forming The Void: James Marshall – Guitar/Vocals Shadi Omar Al-Khansa – Guitar Luke Baker – Bass Thomas Colley – Drums
